Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Tin Foil Method...

As promised.  The tin foil (actually aluminum foil) method.  I took pictures of how I camo'd up my Desert Rat vehicles - here is a step by step comparison.  You will have to wait until I'm finished painting the carriers to judge how well it turned out...

Apply a liberal coat of whatever color you want your stripes to be.

then drink a beer or cider.

Then apply foil.  Or was it drink another beer, wait for green paint to dry, THEN apply the foil??

 
explains the shoddy workmanship I guess.  But by now you're down half a pack of cider or beer, as well as half a can of green paint....must be the beer.

lay out in a herringbone formation.  then, after drinking another beer, apply the "actual" top coat.  The foil will mostly adhere to the shape of the vehicle's details and you can cover the body with the paint topcoat.

In theory, the green stripes will show through after you remove the foil.  Remember to wait for the paint to dry somewhat before removing the foil.  The small gaps where teh foil sticks up are good as some paint will find its way in there.  You want that to make it look a little more realistic - as opposed to the sterile lines that tape would make.


As stated before, it's not perfect, but it beats shelling out all that money to buy an airbrush.  Hope you all like.  Would love to hear your stories for applying vehicle or troop camo.  Seems to be my fascination at the moment.





6 comments:

  1. I do "soft edge" camo using a short-bristled squared-off brush and simply paint in a "tapping" motion. Don't wipe or brush the paint on, just dab and don't goop the paint on heavily. I've had very good results on 15mm tanks once I refined my technique.

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  2. Thanks for commenting, Ski. I'd like to see your method. I have always struggled with decent camo techniques. I have done my halftracks with a "spiderweb" small line pattern and it turned out very nice.

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  3. Good skills Steven, very constructive use of dooby wrappers!

    I use blue tack to achieve the same results myself, but probably drink less beer.

    Model on

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    1. Thanks, Paul. I need to get some of that tack or gummy stuff. More pics of the carrier and how she turned out tonight.

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  4. I'll have to try this out. I've used cotton balls, which I've stretched out. This leaves a less defined transition between colors in the camoflage scheme.

    -Cincinnatus

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    1. Cincinnatus,
      It's not bad. I ended up hand-painting the last 2 AFV's I did because the foil moves around so much. If you tape the bottom you'll have good results.

      There is a definite line but you can overcome the line with some hearty dry-brushing. Everyone seems to like the blue stuff.

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